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Those last four words are the culmination of my summer. An Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. It's really a ridiculous thing, one has to complete all three of these within 17 hours. Not too long ago I thought it would be so cool to compete in one but I NEVER thought I’d be capable of it. Never. (See prior blog entry on signing up). Well, now I am an Ironman! Let’s (briefly) walk through the weekend.

Set up

Ironman Village

As you may or may not know, Whistler is a new location for the 31st running of Ironman Canada. I have been to Whistler five times to ski, but never in summer. It’s still awesome and the scenery is always amazing. Packet pickup, bike/transition bag drop off goes smoothly, and I heavily focus on my nutrition and meals on Saturday. After semi-franticly reviewing my strategies for each of the three sports I settle in and head to bed.

Swim to Bike transition area - bike setup on Saturday

The Finish Line

Race morning goes rather smoothly – no upset nerves, no nausea, I eat most of my standard pre-race breakfast of English muffin plus peanut butter and take my Clif Bar and head towards T2 in Whistler Village to get shuttled to T1. It’s 5:10am and the only people out are the other competitors. Very little talk is going on; it’s a little eerie. I get to my bike, check it over and fortunately there are no mechanical issues. Even the weather is perfect – water temperature around 68 degrees, the air temperature forecasted to be a high of 70, sunny and minimal wind. Attach my water and bento box, put on my wetsuit and head to the swim start.

Swim

Prior to the swim. Do I look nervous?

The swim is still my weak sport. 2.4 miles is a looong way. Going in, I was pretty confident I could complete the distance, even if I had to side-stroke the whole thing – which is what I do whenever I feel anxiety during the swims. What I wasn’t sure of is how close to the two hour and twenty minute cutoff I would be. I was rather nervous getting into the water, swimming with 2000 other people around you is pretty intimidating. I positioned myself towards the back, they announced 30 seconds until start, everyone whooped and cheered, and before you know it the cannon goes off and we are on our way.

Things start off smoothly, it’s not as crowded as I was expected – I positioned myself well. After a few minutes I decide to side-stroke a bit and take in the scenery then alternate back to freestyle. I look back and don’t see a ton of swim caps – a little concerning but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I continue to do this throughout the first lap and eventually I round the fourth turn to start lap two. Well, something clicks – freestyle feels good, really good. All of my anxiety dissipates. I start passing people left and right and I start to really enjoy the swim. I joke to myself “the key to reduce swim anxiety is just simply to warm up for 1.2 miles”. About 1/3 of the way through the second lap, when things are going really well – I think to myself – This is the moment when I know I’m going to become an Ironman today. Round the final buoys and before I know it I’m the final stretch and out of the water.

Done with the swim!

Swim Time: 1:30:31Rank: 1710 out of 2171 (79%)Position in Race: 1710

Bike

The transitions at Ironmans really are awesome – someone is there to help take your wetsuit off, people help you find your transition bags, and even apply sunscreen on you! After a few minutes I’m on my bike for the longest bike ride I've ever done.

Getting ready to mount the bike

Things start off well going well – I see my cheering section of Alicia and Liz a few minutes in and I am taking it really easy to pace myself. The bike course at Whistler is a lot of rolling terrain with a big climb near the beginning and a series of medium-size climbs at the end. The crowd support the first 30-45 minutes was awesome – people are lined up on the streets, everyone cheering for you, it’s just great. I get to the base of the first big hill and start the climb – as you may know, climbing is one of my strengths (being lightweight has its advantages), and I start passing people but yet try to go as “easy” as I can to not burn up too much energy. Towards the top of this climb is the ski jump used in the 2010 Winter Olympics and it’s pretty awesome. Round the turn and head downhill – wheeee! Ludicrous speed was attained as hundreds of riders are flying down the mountain.

Towards the start of the bike

Next up is 30 miles on Sea to Sky Highway to the town of Pemberton. Whizzing by Whistler village the crowd support is there again – people on both sides cheering on the athletes – you feel like a rock star! Most of this section is downhill and one can’t help but think about how is this going to feel going back the other way up hill. Again, try to hold back a little bit and save my energy for the rest of the ride.

Staying aero!

The scenery on the bike course was like this for the entire ride. Freaking amazing.

Once past Pemberton, we get to the only truly flat part of the course – 22 miles out and 22 miles back. The views are (still) amazing. I stay in the aero position as much as I can and settle in. Around mile 60 I stop and apply some additional chamois cream (a wise choice) and focus on staying hydrated. After what seems like forever, I reach the turnaround point and start my trip back. Surprisingly – it’s not as boring going this way and I roll back through Pemberton. The return trip up to Whistler is indeed tough. It’s hot out, my legs are tired, and now I have to deal with hills. It seems like every time you crest a hill you go back downhill losing about a third of your elevation only to go back up – almost like going up three flights of stairs, down one flight, up three, down one, and so on. Finally, finally I’m in the home stretch of the bike as I make the right turn off Sea to Sky and into Whistler Village. Crowd support is there and I’m super happy to arrive to T2 and get off the damn bike!

Bike: 6:48:54Rank: 1373/2065 (66%)Position in Race: 1404

Run

As I’m in transition, changing my tri shorts for running shorts and I hear the announcer state that Trevor Wuertelle is the winner. So – the winner is done and I still have to run a marathon? Bloody hell. My goal was to finish before sunset, which is 8:10pm. Looking at my watch I see that it is 3:30pm – I just need to run a marathon in 4 hours and 40 minutes and I’m golden.

Leaving transition I see Alicia, Liz, and Sammy (our dog) there to cheer me on! I’m reinvigorated and am on my way. Immediately there is great crowd support on the run – your name is on your bib number so I’m hearing “Great job Eric”, “Way to go Eric”, and so on – again, rock star status! I found the run course to be really great – very scenic through woods, lakes, and parts of Whistler Village. Much of it is shaded so I elected to wear a visor but no sunglasses. There are some hills on the course but nothing too major.

Coming out of T2

Doing work

My strategy for the run was to try to start off around 9 minutes/mile and see how I feel, while planning to walk through all aid stations. I’m holding a mid 8 min/mile pace and decide I need to tone it back a bit, but still never get much slower than 8:45. After the first few hills I decide to power-walk up the hills – most of the other people were anyways. It just seemed like so much less energy but wasn’t really that much slower. This was also a great way to conserve energy because I found I only had one comfortable running speed, around 8 min/mile. After a few miles I start to get hungry. Gels aren’t cutting it so I take some of the Honey Stinger chews and to my surprise they are doing the trick. Over the next two aid stations I consume 2 chews each, and after a little bit of walking to get myself to burp I’m ready to run. My general strategy became –

Good run form on the flats and downhills

Power walk (swing those arms!) on the uphills, but no more than 1 minute at a time

Walk through every aid station

Enjoy the scenery!

Enjoying some gravel sections of the Valley Trail

Scenery? Check!

After the first loop I am about 2 hours in, awesome – I still have 2 hours 40 minutes to run a half marathon and make it before sunset! Mile after mile goes by, at aid stations I take a variety of water (x2), gel, chicken broth, or coke. The crowd is still great – “Looking strong Eric, you’re looking REALLY strong!”. Around mile 22 I take my fourth gel of the run and decide it’s coke from here on out. Once I get to mile 25 I tell myself, no more walking! I finally take the last section of the course, see Alicia and Liz, make a few turns and I’m in the finisher chute! OMG I can’t believe I’m here already! I’m a few hundred feet from the woman in front of me so I slow down a little bit to give both of us our own little spotlight. Throwing my arms up in the air I cross the finish.

About to head into the home stretch!

Finisher chute!

Run: 4:06:31Rank: 477/1985 (24%)Position in Race: 960 out of 1985 total finishers (48%)

Total Time: 12:38:22

Finish Line (and Beyond)

When I crossed the line, there were a variety of emotions going through my head. Joy, graciousness (for no major issues), confidence, and honestly just a little bit of disappointment. I was a kind of sad to be done. Additionally, they say finishing an Ironman changes you - well I did not really feel any different (well, except tired). I was confused. After a little while I realized the change started happened the moment I decided to sign up. It takes a lot of courage to sign up for a major event, and that marks the beginning of the transformation. Finishing the Ironman was the final phase of that transformation. Dotting the I, crossing the T. All that said, I'm extremely happy with the entire Ironman experience - from the training to the venue/course (the volunteers were awesome!) to my performance that day. It’s amazing what imagination, determination, confidence, and patience can achieve.

Finisher!

The response I received from friends, family, and even strangers was overwhelming. Walking back through Whistler Village with my medal on, I start hearing people cheering loudly. After looking around I realize they’re cheering for ME! Wow! It was rather touching. So what's next? Maybe another Ironman next year :)

Finally, I have to give thanks to everyone who helped me along the way through this journey. Most of them won’t ever see this, but THANK YOU to my friends, family, coworkers, coaches, other athletes, and especially the spouse.

Nutrition

Some people have asked me - "What/when do you eat in an Ironman?". Well, for me, I focused on eating 6 small-ish meals the day before, totaling around a 3500 calorie intake. During the race, I consumed the following:

One gel (Clif shot with 1/2 caff) just prior to swim (100 calories)

5 gels consumed on the bike - one 5 minutes in, next one around 40 min in, one around mile 60, another around mile 85, and the final one about 5 minutes before getting off (500 calories)